And those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in Our ways; and Allah is most surely with the doers of good. 29:69 The Quran

Pakistan Amends the Constitution

to a Greater Controversy

Syed Javed Hussain

President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain Benazir Bhutto, signed the 18th Amendment to the constitution on Monday 18 April, 2010. The amendment was supposed to remove anomalies from the constitution and eliminate controversies. It has generated more instead.

The same day Mr. Zardari signed the amendment, Advocate Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry filed the petition on behalf of the President of the Rawalpindi District Bar Association, Malik Waheed Anjum. It described the amendment as an intervention in the independence of judiciary that militated against the concept of the basic feature of the Constitution on appointment of judges.

A day later the Amendment was challenged at the Supreme Court's Lahore registry on 19 April, 2010. According toThe Dawn,the most widely read newspaper in Pakistan, in the petition the Petitioner Barrister Zafarullah maintained that the amendment was made for political gains. Yet another petition filed against the 18th Amendment in the Lahore High Court has challenged the renaming of the NWFP asKhaber-Pukhtoonkhawa, one of the four provinces of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan where currently an insurgency is being fought by Pakistan Army.

Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms Formed

Pakistan Peoples Party of Ms Benazir Bhutto, the slain charismatic leader of Pakistan who was assassinated on 27 December, 2007 in Rawalpindi, formed the government in early 2008. After assuming the government it immediately constituted a Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms.

The 27-member parliamentary committee was constituted on 23 June, 2008 to revisit the 1973 Constitution in order to repeal the 17th Amendment and strike a balance of powers between the president and the prime minister, including removal from the Constitution of the controversial clause 58(2)b.

In its 79 meetings the committee headed by the PPP Senator Raza Rabbani finalised a draft of the 18th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2010 on 30 March, 2010 in which it had revisited all 278 articles of the Constitution and suggested some 100 amendments to over 70 articles of the Constitution.

Parliament Overstepped its Mandate

There, however, are people who are not satisfied with the amendment. Imran Khan, ex cricketer turned politician heading Tehrek-e Ansaf, Justice Party, is hypercritical of the amendment along with Munawar Hassan of Jamat-e Islami, a very conservative political cum religious party hypercritical of US presence in the region. In the last ten days they have appeared on many TV programmes, addressed press conferences and brought out rallies as reported in the national media to express their anger over the amendment.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, an eminent lawyer and former minister in Senior Bhuttos cabinet has also expressd his displeasure over the amendment. On 18 April, 2010 giving his views in Mery Mutabiq a hyper critical of government Geo TV programme said that it was not necessary to challenge the 18th Amendment as a whole.

However, he said, some of its articles could be challenged and the court could reject the same. He said the 18th amendment was beyond his comprehension as the four basic elements of the constitution, on which the whole constitution depends, had been violated by parliament.

He further said that every legislator had the legislative powers but not the constitutional powers, as both are two different things. He said this parliament was not empowered to change or terminate the basic structure of the Constitution. In such case, he said, they needed to go for a referendum.

Barrister Akram Sheikh, another eminent lawyer who is always hypercritical of the PPP government talking in yet another TV programme of GEO on 19 April, 2010 said that the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to strike down the constitutional amendment.

Parliament Empowered to Change the Constitution

Talking to media outside the Parliament he said the Parliament is empowered to change the fundamentals of the Constitution and emphasised that the apex court cannot nullify the Constitutional amendment. According to him under Article-238, 239 no amendment in the Constitution could be challenged in any court whatsoever.

PM to Stay as Puppet

On 19 April, 2010 Ansar Abbasi, a very well-known journalist writing inThe News International, Pakistans widely circulated newspaper, opined that the amendment removed one set of constitutional distortions but at the same time it replaced them by a new set of distortions that would begin a new era of political dictatorship.

According to him President Asif Ali Zardari gave up his powers to remove the prime minister, dissolve the National Assembly and appoint the services chiefs, including the Army chief and provincial governors, but by signing the 18th Amendment, he had empowered himself many times over as the co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party with extraordinary powers.

After the 18th Amendment, President Zardari is not able to remove the prime minister and dissolve the assembly but as the PPP-head he can remove his prime minister by demanding his resignation and get unseated any number of ministers or the members belonging to his party.

Before the 18th Amendment, the presidents decision to remove the prime minister and dissolve the National Assembly was linked with the upholding of such a decision by the Supreme Court but in the post-18th Amendment Constitution, there is no such check on the party head.

Information

The amendment was supposed to remove anomalies from the constitution and eliminate controversies. It has generated more instead.﻿